Apparatus for producing matrices for electrotypes and the like.



No; 814,927. PATENTED MAR.13, 1906.

. E. ALBERT.

- APPARATUSFOR PRODUCING MATRICES, FOR E'LEOTROTYPBS AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 6. 1905.

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

v I 5 07mm 7 h r/m m. wzzzwm No. 814,927. PATENTED MAR. 13, 1906.

- E. ALBERT. APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING MATRICES FOR ELEGTRQI YPES AND THELIKE.

APPLICATION FILED DOT. 6.1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

, I V D I I 1 LI U nessea' UNITED STATES PATENT err-Ion EUGEN ALBERT, orMUNICH, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO FERDINAND w sEnJoF NEW YORIQN. Y. A

' APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING MA'lRlCl-IS FOR' ELECTROTYPE AND THE LIKIE..

' Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 13, 1906.

Application filed October 6,1906. serial No. 281,668.

To all whom it 1ncty,c 0ncern;.

Be it known that'I, EUGEN ALBERT, a sub resident of Munich, Bavaria,Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatusfor Producing Matrices for Electrotypes and the Like, which thefollowing is a specification, reference being had to the ac.- companyingdrawings, forming a part hereof.

In the manufacture of matrices for electrotypes it has long beenrecognized that if the impression could be made satisfactorily from thedie or original directly upon a lead late a great saving of time andlabor wou d be gained. The process of electrotyping asitis commonlypracticed at the present time involves the preparation of awax plate,the making of the impression in this wax plate from the die or original,the so-called buil'ding up of'the impression, and the leading of theplate before the electrolytic formation of the copper shell thereon'andthe removal of the wax and the substitution of a lead back I thereforafter the. coppershell has been com ment of a able meta in the place ofthe wax late Would tend toward the simplication o the Broadly pleted. Itis-at once obvious that the elimination of the wax and the directemploylate of lead or of some other suitprocess in a very large-measure. speaking, there .have been two difliculties which haveheretofore stood in the Way of -.eliminating the wax and effecting theimpressions directly in lead or other soft metal plates. One of thedifliculties has been that notwithstanding any degree of pressure whichmight beapplied to press a die and a lead plate together the lead wouldnot take the impression properly, and the other difficulty was that tomake relatively large impressions such an enormous amount of pressurewas required to impress the lead that it was-quite out of therange ofeven a large hydraulic or other ress to effect. The first-mentioneddifliculty was due to the fact that when a die or original was pressedinto a lead plate the portions of the plate opposite the elevations ofthe original had to be forced into the plate, I displacement of suchportions of the plate by compression within itself. Notwithstanding thelarge pressures applied to effect the impressions, WlllCll in the caseof half-tones and photogravures often destroyed the fine linesof theoriginals, the lead could not be made to enter and fill, properly thehollows or deep portions of the originals, whereby, although theelevated portionsof the originals might be impressed in the lead, yetthe impressions as a whole were in most cases'very unsatisfactory. Inaccordance with the present improvements this difficulty is overcome byemploying a yielding or relatively soft layer between the lead or othersubstance receiving the impression and the platen of a press by which itis supported or through whlch it receives pressure, so that the leadplate or other substance being impressed rests between this yieldinglayer and the die or original. In this way when the impression 1s bemgmade the elevated dportions of'the die or original force the lea orotherimpressionsreceiving substance into the yielding layer, wh1ch byreactionary pressure forces the lead or other lmpression-receivingsubstance into the deep portions of the die. Furthermore, this result iseffected with com' aratively moderate pressures, and thus the e lines ofthe originals in the cases of half-tones and photogravures and theelevated portions of the dies in the case of woodcuts are uninjured. Theother difficulty in effectingdirect impressions upon lead, or for thatmatter upon wax, is due, as was stated above, to the very great pressureneeded to produce relatlvely large impressions. For instance, to efiectin wax an eight by ten half-tone impression requires a pressure of abouttwo hundred tons, and the power required to produce any 1mpression issubstantially proportional to the size or extent of the impression. Onthis account the size or extent of the impression which could beproduced heretofore even in wax was limited the power which ,the pressemployed to make the impression could exert. In accordance with thepresent invention the impressions are produced in sectlons, Whereby thepower requiredto produce. the whole impression will not necessarily beof a very high degree, but will be substantially proportional to thesize of the section and w ll have to be applied to produce the wholeimpressionat, least as many times as the particular. section produced byone operat1on of the press is contained in the whole impression. Inorder to efiect the sectional molding of the impression, a peculiarlyformed pressure- A block or platen is employed, between which and thedie or original theiinpressionqeceiv' inggpiece is placed, a soft layeror some placed between said piece and the peculiarlyformedpressure-block, as referred to above. The improvements will be morefully described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings,in which the invention is illustrated in a general way and in which apress that may be employed in car rying out the improvements is shown.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a number of brass rules setat d fferent dis- Sing particularly the platens an tances apart in ablock. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of thesame, taken on a plane indicatedby the line 2 2 in Fig.1 Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a metal matrixstamped in the ordinary way, the matrix resting down during the stampingupon a rigid surface, such as a steel platen. Fig. 4 is a similar viewof a metal matrix which during the stamping rests down upon a yieldingsubstance. Fig. 5 is a view in front elevation of a ress, show- 5 theparts immediately adjacent thereto with a die or original, animpression-receiving piece, &c., resting between the platens. F ig. 6 isa similar view in side elevation. Fig. 7 is a view in vertical sectionof the lower end of the upper platen, taken on a plane indicated by theline 3 3 in Fig. 5, the difference inelevation between the successivesteps in the stepped surface in this platen being exaggerated for thepurpose of more clearly illustrating the same; and Fig. 8 is a plan viewof the under side of the u per platen.

' Re erence will first be had to Figs. 1 to 4, in which there isillustrated in a eneral way the result obtained when a piece of metalresting down upon a hard fiat surface is molded under pressure and theresult obtained when a piece of metal in contact with a relatively softlayer is molded under pressure. The brass rules (1 represent theelevated portions of a die or origina b, and the spaces between themrepresent the hollows, recesses, depressions, or deep parts of the dieor original. When the impression-receiving piece 0 is in contact with anunyielding surface-as when resting down,

' up into .the hol for instance, upon the steel platen of a press theelevated portions of the die or ori inal, in the present case the brassrules, disp ace under great pressure (indicated at d, Fig. 3) portionsof the impression-receivin piece, which remains perfectly fiat upon thesupporting-platen, Figl. 3. If the pressure be sufficiently great, t eelevated portions of the die or original will sink deep enough into theimpression-receiving piece to bring the portions of the imression-receiving piece well lbws and depressions of the die; but, aswas stated above, in the case of such impression-receiving substance aslead these great pressures usually result in the destruction of the dieor original. On the other hand, by the use of a yielding layer a, Fig.4,

next to the impression-receiving substance equivalent device also beingpreferably the pressure from the elevated portions of the die, in thepresent case from the brass rules a, is transmitted thereto and causesreactionary pressures in said layer, the lines of force of suchreactionary pressures being illustrated in Fig. 4.. Such pressures tend,as is obvious, to press the impression-receiving substanceinto thehollows or depressions of the die, while when the impression-receivingsubstance is in contact with the steel platen, as illustrated in Fig. 3,the rigidity of the steel offsets the reactionary pressures therein, andthey are not, therefore, transmitted to the impressionreceivinsubstance. Such a smooth or yieldin layer e may comprise a number ofsheets ofpaper or any other handy material, the thickness of this layerbeing about one centimeter, more or less, and depending somewhat uponthe particular character o the stamping. It'is always placed next to theimpression-receiving piece, which may rest upon it, or vice versa, asshown in Figs. 5 to 8, where the yielding layer rests upon theimpression-receiving piece. In any case the.impression-receiving piecerests between the yieldin layer and the die or original. When a yie dinglayer is not employed in the manner above described, the im3ression-receiving piece, as is obvious, has to e at least a littlethicker than the depth of the hollows in the diethat is, than thedifference in level between the elevated and depressed portions of thedie, as will be clear from Fig. 3. On the other hand, with the yieldinglayer, as in the present case, an impression-receivin piece of athickness about equal to onethird tie difference in level between theelevations and depressions of the die is required in ordinary cases,although this depends somewhat upon the nature of the metal or othersubstance to be impressed. It will be clearly obvious, therefore, thatmuch less pressure is required to form a matrix when a yielding layer isemployed, as described, than has been necessary heretofore and thatwoodcuts, photogravures, and half-tones can be successfully handled bythis method, while according to the old process the originals weregenerally destroyed or the impressions were unsatisfactorily made.

When a large matrix is to be made in which the impression cannot beeffected satisfactorily in one operation owing. to the degree ofpressure required, it is, in accordance with the present invention,molded in sections. When one section or portion of the impression hasbeen effected, the i1npressionreceiv ing piece, together with the die ororiginal, is moved so as to change its position with respect to theplatens or one of them, whereby upon the next operation of the pressanother will be shaped or formed, and so on until the whole surface hasreceived the completely: formed impression. As the impressions have beenroduced heretofore platens of the press have een larger in area than theimpressions to be produced, whereby, as will be seen,,the

H, impression was made'complete in a single operation of the press. If,on the other hand,

one of the platenssay the one which is in con;

tact with the impression-receiving piecebe smaller in area than theimpression to be produced, it will be clear that each time the pressi'sil operated only a portion of the whole impression will be made, andaccordingly only a proportion of the total pressure necessary 'for theproduction of the whole impression atonce will be required to producethe part al impression-as is represented by: the

ratio of the area of the partial impressionto tha'tlof the completeimpression. It will be at once obvious, therefore, that in efiectingimpressions by this sectional method no relatively'large degree of poweris required to be versely with the power which the exerted by thepressandthat the number of impressions required by this sectionalfmethodto elfect'acomplete impression will vary inpress employed is capableofexertin a In order to prevent the deformation, spreading, giving waysidewise, &c., ofthe' impression-receiving piece during the efiecting ofthe sectional impressionsthat is, during the; operation of a platensmaller than the whole impression to be produced-the platen isconstructed to exert what maybe referred to as. a secondary pressureupon' the impression-receiving piece in addition to the is formed withprincipal or main pressure, which effects the complete molding-of one ofthe sections of the impression. For this urpose one of the platens ofthe press, pre erably the upper platen, is formed with an elevatedportion aving an area considerably less than that of the total surfaceof the laten, and on each side of thiselevated portion the surface ofthe platen recedes very gradually. These reced-- mg surfaces arepreferably in the form of steps, as illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8, butmay be continuously smooth surfaces. -If more convenient than formingeach one of the platens of the press with a central elevated portionreceding toward the front and just described, a separate plate may beprovided with such a surface, and'this plate may be secured to the.platen of the press.

In carrying out the invention a press of any ordinary construction maybe employed. In' the drawin s are, shown two platens 1f and 9, one ofwhic preferably the upper p aten, agcentral elevated portion'ih,

whichextends from one side of the, platen to the other side, andreceding from this central -eleyated portion, both toward the front and.tOWard t'he rear of the platen, is'a stepped surface 70. forms arelatively long and narrow oblong back, as

,The central elevated portion thus strip, and the stepped portions onthe surface of the platen form similar strips at different elevationswhich recede successively toward the front and the back from thiscentral elevated portion. The width of each of the steps is largelyarbitrary. In the case of impressions in lead where the width of theele- Vated portion is about seven and one-half centimeters the width ofthesteps may be about two andone-half centimeters. The difference inlevels between the central elevated portion and the adjacent steps andbetween successive steps should be chosen so'that at the moment when thecentral elevated portion eX-- verts a pressure sufficient to completelymold a a section the steps on either side thereof will exert a secondarypressure suflicient to prevent the deformation, spreading, giving waysidewise, &c., of the impression-receiving piece. This in the case oflead-molding necessitates a very'slight difference between the theimpressionreceiving piece may be advanced into the press between-thesuccessive impressions, and suitable mechamsm, illustrated in a generalway at m, 1s prov1ded whereby the plate Z may be ccnveniently. 'moved'to the-exact extent desired, which mechanism it is unnecessary to showand describejnidetail.

When an impression is to be made in accordance with the improvedprocess, the die or original from which the impression is to be taken,together with the material for receiving the impression, :which is incontact with the face thereof,iis placed upon the plate I in such aposition, or the plate Z is subseue'ntly broughtto such a position, thatupon iihe dropping of the u per platen the central elevated portion h othe upper platen will be brought 'down, preferab y over the forward endof the im ression-receim'ng piece, which is upon the orward end of thedie, form, or original from which the impression is to be. made. Whenthe requisite pressure has been applied through the platens tocompletethe formation of that portion of the im" pression which iscovered by the central elevated portion of the,upper platen,'the upperplaten is raised and the plate Z is advanced into the machine, so thatupon the neiitpressing a further'portion of the impression will beeffected; Then the upper platen is again brought down and the pressurerenewed; This operation is continued until the central elevated portionof the upper platen has been brought down over every ,part of the die orformand has thus completed the whole impression.

Byemploying the present improvements the impressions, which are commonlymade in Wax at the present time from the dies or originals, may be madedirectly in lead, and

the pressures required for the direct stamping of the lead will by nomeans be very great. Accordingly, relatively small presses may beemployed, thus not only simplifying the nature of the process, butgreatly simplifying the apparatus which it is necessary to employ Itwill beunderstood that the invention is not limited to the use. of leadas an impression-receiving substance, the invention having beendescribed with specific reference to lead, for the reason that it is ametal which -may be conveniently employed in carryingout theimprovements. Neither is the 1nvention to be understood as limited tothe elevated surface, and a receding surface fixed with respect to theelevatedsurf-ace upon each side of the elevated surface.

3. A press having upon or inteal with one of its platens a continuous ansmooth central elevated surface extending from side to side, a surfacefixed with respect to the elevated surface and receding therefrom towardthe front .of the press, and a surface fixed with respect to theelevated surface and receding therefrom toward the back of the press.

4. A press having upon or integral with one of its platens a continuousand smooth elevated surface, and a stepped surface fixed with respect tothe elevated surface upon each side of the elevated surface.

5. A press having upon or integral with one of its platens a continuousand smooth central elevated surf-ace extending from side to side, astepped surface fixed with respect to the elevated surface and recedingtheme. from toward the front of the press and a stepped surface fixedwith respect to the elevated surface and receding thenefrom toward theback of the press.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

EUGEN ALBERT. Witnes'ses:

MATHILDE K. HELD, Gnono KoRNER,

